The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - How to be Crisis Ready and Crisis Confident with Global Security Executive Andrew Owlett | PPP #42

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

Andrew Owlett shares his experiences as a First Responder, his transition into Emergency and Crisis Management, and how Databulb can provide data-driven risk and crisis management planning solutions.

Please silence your cell phones, hold our sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we will get into this episode of the People Process Progress Podcast in three, two, one. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the People Process Progress Podcast. Your host, Kevin Pinnell. Thanks so much for coming back. I'm joined today on episode 42 with Andrew Allitt. Andrew is the CEO of DataBulb by Imagineering Labs. Andrew, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, Kevin. Happy to be here. Cool. Yeah, it's kind of neat. We, you know, in the midst of both of us sharing info and connecting with people on LinkedIn Connected, which is, again, that LinkedIn platform is just

awesome. Love that platform. And there's a great podcast they have as well called Masters of Scale. So one of the co-founders of LinkedIn does that. So I'd recommend that as well. But again, really good to have you on here and share your story and let folks, listeners get to know you. Yeah, no, I'm happy to be here. And I mean, you hit the nail on the head, Kevin. I mean, LinkedIn is literally one of the most life-changing and transformative platforms out there. I mean, there's just so many benefits from learning from other people to providing information to other people so they can learn from you. I mean, it's just amazing.

So, yeah, small world. It is, yeah. Very small. So, speaking of worlds, let's start with kind of the basics of your world. Where did you grow up? Where are you from? Yeah, so I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was a New Jersey transplant a little while after that, and lived in New Jersey for a while moved to Maryland and I've been in Maryland for, uh, for, um, almost, uh, 20 years now. So, um, it's, uh, it's a complete change of environment from one to the other, but, uh, it's kind of cool how that happened. That is cool. Yeah. I lived in Knoxville for a couple

of years when I was younger from like third to fifth grade. And, uh, my parents lived, uh, not far from spring city or in spring city rather not far from chattanooga i guess i should say um for a little bit so cool there so are you a vols fan um i i was was oh yeah i could have changed right yes a maryland guy now yeah 100 percent a maryland guy now i remember um when i was I think I was still in the Navy in the nineties and they were like number one for like a week or two just rolling, which was pretty cool to pretty cool to see what took you from Tennessee to Maryland then. So at first it was it was my, my dad kind of moving around and then my um, my, um, my family kept moving around. Um, I stayed,

I stayed in the DMV area, um, mainly because a couple of reasons, um, it kind of turned, um, turned into being a good career choice. Um, I, I, um, started out in the fire department, a little bit about my story. I don't know if I'm jumping ahead here, Kevin, but, um, kind of, um, um, what of what happened was we relocated here. And I said, you know, I really want to get my hands into some sort of volunteer fire department. I want to make an impact on the community that I live in. And what better way to do that as a young adult than kind of kind of jumping into it and getting all this training from firefighter to EMT to hazmat pack um quickly picked up a career gig in the fire department

which caused me to stay even longer in Maryland um went went to college uh when I was in the fire department um did did that for a little while and then just kept evolving throughout my career. Got my wife and just kind of got settled in the state. Nice. So, yeah, to your point, so going back. So growing up, you grew up like grade school and stuff in Tennessee. So you stayed there and then moved to Maryland when you were a bit older? Yep. Yep. You got that right. Yeah. So I was in Tennessee for a couple years, moved to actually New Jersey, and was in New Jersey for about 15 years, and then eventually relocated to Maryland. So a lot of bouncing around. My dad was actually in the Navy at first, which caused some of the bouncing around, but it kind of stayed in his blood. And he kind of enjoyed moving around a lot.

I don't know if I don't really hear that from a lot of vets often that they like moving around all the time, but my dad did. So kind of put that into our blood for a little bit. That's interesting. A parallel for I was in the Navy, my dad and my father-in-law both were in the Navy. And so my wife moved around a lot. So we had that discussion where I'm good, not moving a this person and then the rest is history. So pretty cool. And yeah, the DMV is in DC, Maryland, Virginia. You got it. It's a cool, cool place. And to your point, tons of tons of career opportunities. So what was life like for you as a fire medic hazmat guy? Um, pretty, pretty crazy. Um, I, um, um, start, started out volunteering and then, uh, realized very early on that I absolutely loved every bit

of, um, being a first responder. And that, that pushed me to pick up a paid gig in the fire department. And I think one of the coolest parts, and it really defined the last 14 years of my career, and I was actually talking to somebody about this today, I think what's really cool is, and I've been in the crisis management, emergency management field for 14 years, right? So like starting out as a very tactical first responder, kind of in the heat of the moment, literally impacting people, seeing their impact, both positively and negatively. I'm always hoping for the positive, but unfortunately, you know, not everything is the perfect story, but that, that really gave me insights into, um, just strategic decision-making on the fly, um, um, decision-making and not, not to get tunnel vision to, to kind of, um, see, see things holistically, see different scenarios and everything. And, um, it, it, it was a crazy

time, um, being, being a first responder. And actually taking a step back really quick, Kevin, something that I have to share is what got me into being a first responder is when we were living in New Jersey, my sister was born and first couple months, she stopped breathing and she's okay today, like doing amazing all-star athlete all this stuff um but um i mean it i remember seeing that seeing cpr being performed on my sister and being like holy cow like this is happening and then on the other side of things being a young uh teen i said wow it's really cool to ride in an ambulance and i really like the lights and sirens. So, so, so there, there was a part of me that said, you know, there's, there's, there's something there,

something gave me an itch to want to help people out. And that was my motivation to, to kind of step foot into the fire department. But man, it just to say it was hectic is, is just, it's just one way of putting it. I mean, I, I lived at a fire station quite literally for seven and a half years. I volunteered in the evenings, was paid during the day, went to college when I could. But they say if you want to make something of yourself, you have to hustle, right? Yeah, totally.

Yeah, it was similar when i was a teenager started off before i went in the navy a couple years at my local volunteer station then back as an adult in my 30s um for longer and actually became an engineer and stuff like that so i would recommend it for anyone you know looking for ways to get involved in the community and to your point folks in crisis management emergency management incident management sure we'll get into this in a bit too without that knowing what it's like for the boots on the ground literally when you're doing strategic planning or crisis management or something like that i think is a big gap that's hard to make up not having done it how did you you mentioned so you you did paid service time during the day and the volunteers at night. And, you know, as you know, in the public safety, particularly the fire service, EMS, sometimes there's some, some flack

between career volunteer or dual hatters or those kinds of things. Did you get much of that? All the time. I mean, it's, it's there, there's so much of the United States that's made up of volunteer fire service personnel, But when you get into more urban settings, you have typically a structure that's more career focused than where I was with a combination department, which definitely presented its challenges. But I mean, one of the things I was able to bring to the table and the perspective I was able to bring is that this is how volunteer fire department personnel can complement a career fire service organization and vice versa. And there were definitely tensions on both sides of the table, but kind of being in the middle and

being able to be that mediator was, I mean, it was a benefit, but it was difficult at times because there was just a perception on, hey, I'm a career firefighter. I'm better because I do this all the time. Well, that's not necessarily the case because in Maryland, at least, I mean, you still have to get the same amount of training. And it's a lot of training. And to be able to keep up with skills, you can't just sit on your hands. You actually have to go out there. And if you're an EMT, you have to practice because you'll lose those skills super quick. And you want to be a good practitioner when you have somebody's life in your hands, so you don't just want to sit on it. and resolution early on, not only from treating people and dealing with the public as a public

safety professional, but also from like internal tensions for sure. Yeah, that makes sense. In a previous episode of the podcast, it was a professional volunteer firefighting because I'm 100% agree. I think the only difference and a good thing is the station I was at when I was an adult was our chief was a career guy plus volunteer 20 plus years. And then the assistant was his dad, 40 plus years retired from the city. So their their standards were high. Right.

And so the thought being the only difference that someone should know is the is just happens that my duty T-shirt says volunteer on it. But other than that, I shouldn't, you know, show up with not all my stuff on or be squared away or all that kind of stuff and and that's one thing i found too though is across the country and even it within same states um there's not the same standard which i think is unfortunate where you could do a minimal class or online or one classroom and you can actually go like internal to structure fires which is crazy to Um, so I wish to your point that, you know, that the volunteers that kept it, you know, professional that worked up to that standard and the career folks that worked with them that helped them along there too, or vice versa, help each other. Um, I wish that was uniform. Um, but to your point, uh, I think one thing that,

that I've kind of have tons of, tons of friends that are career fire folks that forget is the majority of firefighters today are still volunteer firefighters. So it's a pretty amazing thing. Well, and just kind of like building on that, Kevin, I mean, you just hit the nail on the head. Like the standardization across the board is super inconsistent. and consistent. I mean, and that's one thing that, like, if we go back to, I'm going to use 9-11 as an example, just because after 9-11 is when emergency management and public safety technology and innovation really kind of started to take off, and it's still building. The climax isn't there yet. I mean, they're still trying to get a lot implemented. But I mean, you go back, like almost 20 years ago, and one of the top actions coming out of 9-11 was, you know, you need interoperable communications across the board. And that's something that's

still being worked on to this day. And as an example, and that's not a light undertaking by any means. I mean, I can't imagine integrating radio frequencies across every jurisdiction in the United States of America. I mean, that's crazy. But the reason I'm mentioning that is because we would run calls over state lines. And we've gone to Pennsylvania and just a completely different ballgame from dispatching to response protocols to tactical firefighting protocols. I mean, everything that you just said, so true. And we saw that all the time. Yeah. yeah so hopefully the standardization and you know high level stuff keeps keeps going and hats off you know to all the folks out there doing it whether they're getting a check for it or not because it's it's it's no joke i think i think it'd be great if every citizen could get just a

ride along even just one shift you know and get a perspective one to your point earlier it is really cool riding in an ambulance or a fire engine or a truck or whatever, just to do it. But to get that perspective, you know, with police, with EMS, whoever, because it would really be eye-opening. Couldn't agree more, Kevin. And I mean, you know, and this just builds on what you said a couple minutes ago. I mean, at the end of the day, when somebody calls 911, they don't care who shows up at their door as long as they're qualified. And that person can be paid or not paid. It doesn't matter. They just want to know that that person has a degree of competency to do the job that they're there to do. I mean, it's one of those things that going back to like, you know, was there a divide?

Yeah, there was. But was it a self-imposed divide? I think so. I mean, I think at the end of the day, everybody has the ability to change something that's traditionally been there. And it's a massive cultural shift, especially in a culture, in a fire department culture that's been around for decades. I mean, arguably like a hundred plus years, right? I mean, it's hard to change a culture like that, but you know, every, every step toward progress is a step that is worth taking. It's like people should work some sort of process and together they can make progress. It's crazy. Yeah, it's really crazy. So you, so you are doing fire mess stuff. Um, and then after that, where were you looking toward? Cause I know you ended up doing emergency management, crisis management. How was that bridge and going to school? What did you go to school for? Yeah. So, um, I was, I was in the fire department and I, um, I knew I wanted to get a college degree. I wanted to get a four-year degree. So, excuse me, I, um,

I applied to a couple of colleges and universities and, um, got, got into Mount St. Mary's University, small liberal arts college in, um, Frederick County, Maryland, uh, like border of Western and Eastern Maryland anyway. Um, and, um, ended up going there for four years and still working during the day and at night as much as I could in volunteering, but I went for political science. And I said, you know what, if I'm in the fire department and in the public safety realm, I want to study something completely different. And I ended up picking political science after I didn't do so well in some other classes, uh, um, just because it wasn't, wasn't a good niche for me. Um, and, uh, um, ended up going through with that, but,

um, even, even these stuff of the way, like I, I knew, I knew I wanted to do something to touch the public again in some way, shape or form. And I knew I didn't want to be in the fire department forever because I knew there was so much impact that can be made out there. So I always had my eye on doing something different and I didn't figure out what that was until a couple of years later. So you wanted to go kind of from that tactical level to, you know, touching more of the populace and that's which, yeah, it seems like a natural progression. And again, from, you know, a lot of emergency management, uh, I mean, it's under the fire department in some places to your point earlier about it's still growing, expanding and maturing, which is wow.

It's been around for a while, but, um, you see that a lot still, uh, which is interesting. So when you, you did political science and what, what from that combined with your fire department experience, uh, what was your next step with that? Yeah. So I, um, I took on an internship one summer, somehow I squeezed it in. And, uh, um, I said, um, I did an internship with a local emergency management agency and, uh, the Maryland state emergency management agency. And, um actually um really really enjoyed it um and i say actually like it's a surprise um but um i i enjoyed it um and i said okay i think i know what i want my next step to be i think i want to get get some more exposure in this so i eventually i

graduated college um and right after my four-year degree, I said, I want to get my master's and I need to specialize in something that's quasi-emergency management, quasi-something else. So I became a Terp, go Terps, go University of Maryland. Had to put a shout out there, Kevin, because- Sure. And got my master's in management with a specialization in homeland security management. And I ended up resigning from the fire department in March of 2014. And about six months prior to that, I picked up what was at the time a side gig working for a small defense contracting company in the D.C. metropolitan area doing some defense contracting work for the Army, did some business continuity planning, some satellite communications work, some emergency

management work. So I kind of set myself up to leave the fire department after a period of time. So I ended up doing that. And then that kind of like paved the way for so many other things that we'll talk about today. Yeah, totally. I was gonna say that's a great kind of like paved the way for so many other things that we'll talk about today yeah totally i was gonna say that's a great sounds like a great transition plan seeing kind of your goal down the road getting yourself to it and um you know kind of leaving that world which i imagine was it a bit of a bittersweet where it's a break from shift work but you miss the the kind of you know action and lifestyle and just the camaraderie there? Well, it's, it's funny you mentioned that. So, um, I couldn't give up shift work quite yet. So actually, uh, my, my defense contracting, um, gig, um, was,

was a shift schedule. Um, so funny enough, um, I still stayed with a shift work for a couple of years after I left the fire department, but in a different way. It wasn't so much night work. It was more like shifts throughout the day. But I was working in an emergency operations center. And taking a step back for a second, you know, I just had kind of an epiphany here talking to you. But I almost, I want to say, you know, I had a plan for about, there were, as I reflect back, there was a period of time that I had a plan for, hey, this is what the fire department to the defense contracting job was, was about a year that I knew I wanted to get there because I wanted to do other things, but it took some time, but not a lot of time.

I mean, looking back, I would have never forecasted that today I'd be doing what I'm doing. It's just, it's just, uh, it's not the plan I painted out 14, 15 years ago. It's a little bit different, but that's okay. Did you know other folks that got out of the fire service, uh, around the same time as you were, that were out already, that kind of helped give you some pointers or folks that were still in the fire service, or were you kind of mapping it and getting there with your own thoughts um mostly mostly my thoughts to be honest but i i did i did know folks that left the fire service um but they they had more time

in than i did i i think um i think i left um definitely on the early side. A lot of people, I mean, they stay for 10, 15, 20 years. They get their retirement benefits and then they move on to something else. I took a slightly different approach. And whether or not it was the, I mean, I think it was the right approach for me. It may not be the right approach for everybody. Yeah, it makes sense. It sounds like, though, it makes sense. It sounds like though, it's a good idea for someone that, that might be thinking about it, whether

they're retirement age or at a point, maybe they had those too many bad calls or they just realized, Hey, I don't want to do this anymore to have some kind of plan laid out or, you know, make sure you're prepped before you just leave. Yeah. Set the groundwork. Yeah, and that's really key. I mean, you don't need to know like two, three, four years out that, hey, I want to leave on this date around this time in my life. But as long as you do, like you said,

a little bit of prep work before, you can make sure you don't have a low unemployment. You have kind of that safety blanket in a way. And you make sure you set yourself up for a lot of other good things. You mentioned business continuity and doing that. When I was a public health emergency guy, we used to have to do continuity of with, again, some of the stuff we see on LinkedIn, the news, wherever?

What's your thought as a not necessarily for the duty and that kind of work, but, you know, that you've seen as far as a lot of businesses' readiness for something like a pandemic? Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that I'm seeing is that if businesses had a business continuity plan in place, that it may not have been operational and may have just been a compliance exercise. And in turn, it may not have worked according to how have just been a compliance exercise and in turn it may not have worked according to how they thought it would work that's one situation the other situation is that um you know a lot of businesses didn't have any sort of plan and then they started scrambling um and in in my experience what i've've seen in talking to people and everything, it took them a much longer time to actually get a handle on the crisis. So crisis hits, there's impacts on a state and local level from a quarantining standpoint.

Some businesses, they saw immediate impacts from actually COVID entering their workplace, and they didn't have a plan, and they were scrambling on what do I do? And couple that with, at times, some mixed guidance, because the entire COVID pandemic was so new at the time that nobody actually knew what it was going to do. Couple that with that, and then just so many other things, it became a little chaotic for some businesses that I've talked to over the last couple months. There are some businesses that are outliers, some large technology companies. Actually, there's a company I talked to that's in the Fortune 10, actually. I know a guy that runs a business continuity program in the Fortune 10, and they didn't have a specific pandemic plan. Even at a Fortune 10 company that's making billions of tens of billions of dollars a year, hundreds of billions of dollars a year. I mean, they didn't have a pandemic plan in place,

but what they did is they practiced agile crisis management and they moved people super quick because they're used to being a big tech company, doing things really quick based on market fluctuation and everything. So they were able to rapidly adapt and they did fine even without a plan. But I think, I mean, I kind of go and look at the news and everything. And I say, you know, the most impacted folks with COVID are those small, medium-sized businesses that they're almost like the boots on the ground businesses in the communities that got hit really, really hard. Um, and then they're still hit today.

Um, and they didn't have anything in place. Yeah. And I love the term, uh, operationalized cause I think you can have a huge plan and someone can pick it up and they have no idea what to do with it because it's just, it is an exercise in, in checking a box as opposed to here's how you use this and here how it's, it's quick to use. And it's a good point of, you know, kind of haves and have nots, but, but, you know, just cause you're bigger, it sounds like in some instances doesn't mean you'll have that, but thinking about, you know, the, the local shop,

whether it's a, you know, an eatery or, or whatever it is, and really their focus is how do we, you know, keep making profit somewhat to stay open, let alone, and we have to have all these other plans, is a pretty daunting thing for sure. But one of my hopes and now is that folks have certainly dusted off and are gathering those lessons learned to build, and maybe the smaller businesses out there are using some of because because one thing out there on at least locality states you know fema's got them you know the business continuity templates um that are just out there um so folks you know hopefully can reach out to those or or something um or you know crisis management so you know for you and emergency management you mentioned agile crisis management, which I'll come back to in a second.

So you're doing some business continuity, things like that. So how did you get the idea for DataBulb and what's the focus there? Yeah, so I'm going to a larger defense contractor, did that, went to an even bigger defense contractor firm and did more crisis management business continuity work. So I kept doing that. I did that for about five years. And then I got hired by the federal government, which is kind of, well, I am with the federal government today.

So I mean, like everything we're talking about is literally Andrew's opinion. Just putting that disclaimer out there. It's not the government's opinions. Right. It's Andrew Owens personal opinion. But so how did I get the name and how do I get the concept of Datable by Imagineering Labs? So we're in the heat of this pandemic. And, you know, I decided to do this llc filing uh and start a

business um and it's significantly harder um one one would say wow crisis management in the beginning of a crisis like well business must be booming no it's not the case because there's so much market um instability right now with everything going on um so there's there's actually not a lot of demand. But anyway, so taking a step back, like about a year and a half ago, I said, I really want to be able to have broader and more impact in the crisis management field. One of the things that crisis management, emergency management, business continuity professionals don't always pay attention to is the data side of all those disciplines. And it's really important too. So I wanted to build a company that focused on proactive data focused and data driven crisis management. And I wanted to have a software information technology backbone to it because I firmly believe that there are things we've been doing in those disciplines over the last couple of decades that can be further optimized through

process documentation, process optimization in a digital environment. And I think there are a lot of better ways to do it. And it's not going out there and selling a one size fits all software solution like a lot of companies do it's more focusing focusing in on the operationalization of planning procedures and all of that so a couple months back I started the company and I said I want to focus on one industry one industry that I'm the most passionate about which was really hard to do because I'm passionate about a lot of industries and I have some public health experience. I have some private healthcare

experience. I have a little bit of pre-hospital healthcare experience from my time as an EMT, but that healthcare it is. And it's been a learning experience, learning about healthcare and just everything that goes into healthcare. But private healthcare specifically is definitely the place where my company is right now and where we want to be. Is that when you say private with like home health or with assisted living or what kind of private healthcare? Yeah. So we're focusing on, um, private hospitals, um, non nonprofit hospitals, um, also assisted living facilities and adult, adult, um,

adult daycare facilities. So, um, um, everything you just mentioned. Cool. And so when you say data driven, if you're looking at a hospital or health care system or, you know, a single facility, what kind of data And you look at COVID and how it developed. And when COVID started becoming more and more of a thing in the United States in the February, March timeframe, it really started building up and gained a lot of traction. And at that time, we're in winter for those four months or four season entities throughout the country. But now we're in the summer, right? So for hospitals, at the time, what they were looking,

what they needed to be looking at and what they started looking at was how many people am I having coming in here to our hospital facility that have symptoms of COVID that test positive or don't test positive for COVID? So they're getting a ton of data on that. How many health, how many ICU beds do I have available? How many ICU beds do I not have available? What's my, what's my hospital capacity right now? What, what is my, what could my hospital capacity reach in the next one day, two days, three days, two weeks, etc. So being able to do some analytics and being able to kind of better anticipate some of the demand

on a healthcare setting is really, really important. Now, the other part to that in leveraging geospatial data analytics, it's really important to do that as well. And we're a big proponent of the company for open source geospatial data analytics it's really important to do that as well and we're a big proponent of the company for open source geospatial data analytics because number one it's super more it's way more cost effective and number two we believe that that's the wave of the future is that it's all going to be open source and that there's going to be a ton of data that's there's already a ton of data out there there's going to be even more over the next five to 10 years, and it's going to be really reliable. But looking at geospatial data analytics and kind of building a map to better anticipate, hey, is my hospital facility at risk for a

hurricane in three, four months? This is going back to February, March. If so, what could the potential demand on the hospital be if we get a direct hit from a hurricane? And what's the likelihood of that? So we did some modeling and simulation in Georgia. We looked at the COVID testing sites in Georgia, all of them. We looked at the COVID testing site numbers in Georgia. We looked at the hospitals and we started modeling and simulating potential hurricane impacts to Georgia, just as a state, as a test case. You know, that's one way healthcare facilities can better anticipate risk to their facility and also risk to testing locations, especially back, or especially today when we're getting, you know, geared up and hurricane season is happening.

Do you, when you say looking at the risk, like a kind of a thyrus estimate or something, do you use kind of historical data? How often has this happened? Where have cases been reported? Kind of those and like a combination of all that kind of data. And of course, data, given some of the latest news stories, is a huge thing now and the validity of it. So how one, I guess, is that kind of what's a sample combo of the latest news stories is a huge thing now and the validity of it. So how one, I guess, is that kind of what's a, what's a sample combo of the data you look at. And then when you mentioned the validity of like the open source,

how do you all kind of assure folks, Hey, this is, this data is good to go. Yeah. So we, we have, so I'm going to answer this in a couple of different pieces here. Right. So, so we, we quantitative um as much quantitative based um risk mapping as we can um but there has to still be a qualitative risk element to it um because there are some things that the data just doesn't capture. And there are some pieces of data that just aren't in existence. So when we were doing the mapping for Georgia,

we based all of our data modeling on historical weather data from government, US government based sources like the NOAA. NOAA has a massive database that dates back for decades and we leveraged that. And we could see some outliers in that too. And they're important to note that there's definitely a likelihood of a direct hit of a category five hurricane in the state of Georgia, but it's not a high likelihood, it's a low likelihood. And that's where

some of that qualitative risk mapping elements come into play. So we primarily use open source, reliable, U.S. government-backed data sources. And we have a whole massive database of different categories of data from natural hazards to open source cybercrime data to physical terrorism-related data, workplace violence-related data, socioeconomic data and likelihood of socioeconomic impacts in different areas and stuff, because that's important to note from a crisis management perspective, from a homeless population perspective and so many others, the vulnerable population. So we have a ton of data options that are out there that have been vetted by reliable entities within the U.S. government. That's awesome. So how, when someone wants to look at that, it sounds like a great opportunity.

We have access to this. Are you usually sitting with a client and reviewing the data so when you're doing the assessment or you're managing, you're doing the plans, you're kind of walking them through the likelihoods or kind of showing them the scenarios that could possibly happen? Yeah, so believe it or not, we have a process that we like to follow and everything when we're kind of building data modeling and simulation type of efforts and initiatives. So we do as much as we can. We'd like to be called a 100% virtually based company. So we can meet with our clientele virtually anytime and be able to stand up rapidly geospatial dashboards based on the need and the anticipated need. such a deep root from being a tactical, operationally based first responder.

And because I have kind of that strategic outlook side of things as well, we're able to meet with clients, understand what they're trying to look at, and gather the data sources and present the data sources in a visually appealing way, whether that's with a geospatial dashboard, a geospatial operational based dashboard, or just kind of a report or a briefing on a specific incident or event. And everything is able to be rapidly set up. I mean, the amount of hours it takes to do this, it doesn't have to be weeks or months. It needs to be, you need to have data-driven decisions now during a crisis. So we build our methodology on that.

So part of my professional background is that on incident management team as planning section chief. And so that to me screams, you know, situation unit or information and secure or information intelligence section, one of the two. Could it work either kind of, you know, for that pre-planning or, hey, we have to stand it up to your point now. And it seems like, hey, we need a solution and boom, now we have have data and we have access to all this data. Yeah, absolutely. So it can be it can be pushed on. We recommend, of course, leaning forward as much as you can. folks get more funding is during the heat of a crisis when they really need help to augment their staff and their procedures and their crisis management capabilities. But no, for sure, you hit the nail on the head, Kevin. I mean, any step of the way. I mean, back in February, March,

I was looking at COVID test sites and I was trying to better anticipate a disruption before hurricane season happened. And I use Georgia as an example. I was looking at Florida. I was looking at Texas as well. Two of a handful of hotbeds that are on the rise quite rapidly and two of some of the most impacted states in the United States when it comes to hurricanes. So, I mean, and I sure hope that, you know, the government down there is looking at that too, and I'm sure they were. But I think the other thing is, on the other side of things right now, crisis management professionals are just so strapped down with so many different things going on. Right. And I actually I wrote an article about two months ago.

There are so many competing priorities within the crisis management space they're data-driven solutions to make the lives easier of the sure our solutions can actually be functional for the crisis management profession. So, you know, that sounds like kind of leading into the progress piece of this. So, you know, the process of working with folks, data-driven solutions, both historical and real-time and open source and all that. So how with you, with the data, bold folks, can a company move forward or entity or business,

whomever that wants to reach out to you, how will they make progress with you and your folks? Yeah. So there's a couple of different ways. So we focus on rapidly standing up capabilities and then turning them over into the hands of the people that can run it that are 100% dedicated to the company that's kind of that full-time employee. So we show progress by building the right solution, getting in and getting out. I mean, a lot of consulting companies, they want to hang around forever. We want to deliver a solution and deliver it right. And then we want to be able to hand that over and say, if you need us again, you know how

to reach us, but we're not going to pressure you on anything. We're here for you and we're here to deliver the most operationally based solution train your people up and get out if you don't need us um and and that and that's one of the ways um that that we show that number one um we're we're kind of in a weird way giving back. And we understand that in our niche space in healthcare, healthcare facilities and companies, they run their business, the core business, like a Fortune 500 company. And they have to worry about that bottom line

like everybody else does. Even during COVID. I mean, healthcare is getting hit hard, like we talked about a couple weeks ago, Kevin. And it's one of these things that if we can help save on the bottom line to take that money and put it toward a different type of medical solution, and instead of worrying about, hey, are we going to be able to handle a crisis, we're feeling better about ourselves that we're able to kind of say, hey, we're going to get in, we're going to get out unless you need us some more, you know, or we're out of here, dedicate that other money to something else that the hospital needs to be able to run more efficiently, effectively and deliver better patient care services. And we hope to be able to contribute

to that kind of on the back end through advanced data analytics and crisis management data analytics. That's awesome. So it really sounds like a plug and play solution that you can, you know, come in, come out, you're really teaching folks to fish, right, in crisis management, and then labeling them or, as you say, making people crisis ready, crisis confident? Yep, you got it. It's kind of our phrase. I mean, we want to make people more confident in their ability to handle a crisis whenever it happens. And that includes the standard federal government FEMA way of saying before, during, and after a crisis, right? So if we can build the confidence of the organization to a state that they say,

you know, if something gets thrown our way, we're able to be agile. We're able to move as the crisis moves. We're able to get ahead of the crisis. We are crisis ready. And that's definitely something that we push for. That's awesome. And you mentioned, you know, agile crisis management, of course, agile is one of the project management methodologies. And there's such a blend that we've spoken of that I know you're involved in of emergency management, crisis management, project management, it's just, you know, so much crossover and what's done or how you can do things. And I know I've seen sometimes when you try and get kind of too project managey and you have to go

fast, it kind of bogs you down or vice versa where you don't have enough. How do you integrate kind of, you know, that agile or project management methodologies into when you're helping folks, you know, through the process and making that progress to kind of run those. Do you stand it up kind of like a, you know, a project coming in to work with that other company? Yep, 100%. So we have a really – I touched on this earlier that we have an IT software engineering crisis management backbone. I mean, that's have kind of elements of our backbone that are so deep rooted and really solid project management methodologies that have been proven across at least five industries so far that we're able to push crisis management projects along with our methodology super quick. So as an example, I mean, any undertaking that we have, we have a project management

plan and we're able to move pieces around depending on the most critical need and depending on what stakeholders are available. So we're always showing that forward progress and we follow the agile methodology, because like I said, we want to get in, we want to get out. I mean, we want to do things as quick as possible. And actually, oddly enough, so I'm getting, I'm working on my PhD, and I'm about two and a half years into it. And my, it's a PhD in business administration with a focus on project management and my dissertation on mission critical projects with part time stakeholders and how to manage them effectively. And agile is one of the ways that you can do that is through the agile methodology.

And it's like I said, we've tested our project management methodologies across the board in at least five different industries. And we're able to show measurable progress quickly. We're able to engage with stakeholders and build relationships with them rapidly. We're able to go in and stand up a program rapidly. I mean, it's just incredible when you're able to cultivate relationships, you're able to, um, um, just show measurable progress, um, how, how good people feel, um, when they're getting a product in their hands that they can actually use and understand. Yeah. The, the word that kind of stuck in that you mentioned before of building people's confidence, which I think when you get people that are working together on a process and not too stringent, but it's keeping them together. And especially to your point, when you have made folks crisis confident, when organizations or individuals or leaders or anybody has confidence, I think they're less apt when whatever crisis hits to kind of

freak out a little bit and really be able to manage better. And of course, it sounds like with the data and the tools that you provide, they also have less guesswork they have to have to worry about in that aspect as well. But that's a great confidence builder when you enable organizations that may not have otherwise had the information or the abilities to be able to do so moving forward. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, at the end of the day, we understand that when you're faced with a crisis, you're not going to necessarily, we want folks to know what their next couple moves could be ahead of that. And if we're able to provide options and a playbook type of operationally based plan to be able to help guide them, I mean, that's a step in the right direction, at least get them going. And crisis events can't be pre-scripted out. They can't be. I mean, not every crisis event is completely different than the last one. Sure, they may share similar traits

and there may be similar aspects that happen, but they're not 100% identical. There are different facets that kind of emerge that make them unique. So if we can, like you said, if we can build the confidence of the folks that are going to be running the crisis to understand tactically and strategically what their moves are going to be, the next five moves, as I like to say, what are your next five moves? And if we're able to help supply them with some options, we feel like we're being successful. That sounds good. And totally agree between instant management, project management,

there's adherence to the principles that empower you versus, no, we have to do this, then this, then this, which gets people locked up. So that's a great, great statement as well. So if somebody does want to get confident, get empowered, how can they do so with you and DataBulb? How can they reach you? Yeah. So there's three ways that folks can reach me. They can email me at info at DataBulb.co. They can connect with me on LinkedIn, Andrew Outlet, or they can go to www.DataBulb.co and just navigate to the contact form. Three ways.

Awesome. And we'll share those on the website when we post for this episode as well. So folks can click the links or type them in should they choose to. What do you want to let folks know before we kind of wrap up, coming up on an hour here about you or Databull or anything that's going to help folks learn from your experiences and help them make that progress. For sure. So if folks want to have a crisis management capability that is data-driven, strategic, and operationally sound, contact me. I'm able to help them out in the healthcare space. Very nice, Andrew. Thanks for coming on. It was great to

connect with you. I'm sure we'll be in touch. And folks out there that are listening, please, you know, connect with Andrew, see what Data Bulb's all about, get to know him a little bit. Again, we'll share those links on the post. But Andrew, it was great chatting with you, kind of like we mentioned at first time, you know, when you start talking, isn't so slow now, we're already at an hour. So it's pretty good. Good conversation. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Kevin. I really appreciate your time and look forward to keeping in touch. Take care. Yeah, absolutely. Bye bye.